1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to coke oven battery servicing equipment in general and, more particularly, it is directed to equipment for catching and collecting hot coke spilled from the oven when the doors are removed and a coke guide for conveying the collected spillage and the coke pushed from the oven to a quenching receptacle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A coke oven is a long, narrow chamber which is accessed on each end through a removable door. The ovens are generally arranged side by side in an integral structure which forms a coke oven battery. This battery is serviced on both sides by cars which travel along tracks parallel to the battery. On one side, referred to as the "pusher side", the car has pusher equipment which urges the coke from the oven. On the other side, the "coke side", the car has a coke guide which spans the coke side bench and guides the coke from the oven into a hot coke quenching receptacle. Both cars are provided with door extractor, door cleaner and door jamb cleaning equipment. The door extractor unlocks, removes and then reinstalls the oven door. The door cleaner removes coke and breeze from the door's gas channels. The door jamb cleaner removes coke and breeze from the oven door jamb just prior to the reinstallation of the oven door.
On coke oven batteries, there is a spillage of hot coke from the oven when the doors are removed prior to the oven being pushed. The spillage usually lands on the battery bench causing damage to the machine rails as the coke is ground up by the rolling wheels of the servicing car, and of course creating a safety hazard for any personnel on the bench.
On older batteries, it is commonplace for bench personnel to manually remove coke spillage by shoveling it over the side of the bench or into the quenching receptacle. On current batteries, the typical method is to catch the coke spillage as the door is removed, and by a system of drag conveyor chains, convey the coke through the machine for deposit in the quenching receptacle. Another coke spillage removal method commonly used in West Germany is a drag chain conveyor operating along the bench in front of the ovens. The spillage is conveyed to a hopper at the end of the bench for disposal. The bench type drag chain runs continuously at a very slow speed during the pushing operation.
Other solutions to the problem of catching coke spillage have been suggested. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,166,007 discloses a device for catching coke oven spillage on the pusher side during door removal and during withdrawl of the pusher ram. The device moves on separate rails of its own, independent of the pusher machine. The device is pivoted so that it can dump the spillage back into the oven. U.S. Pat. No. 2,310,924 discloses a receptacle mounted under the coke guide for receiving spillage during pushing. The collected coke is periodically removed to the quencher car. This receptacle is carried by the coke guide and since the door is removed by a door remover displaced laterally of the ovens on the coke guide car, there is nothing to catch spillage during door removal.